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The Sixties Unplugged: A Kaleidoscopic History of a Disorderly Decade
“If you remember the Sixties,” quipped Robin Williams, “you weren’t there.” That was, of course, an oblique reference to the mind-bending drugs that clouded perception—yet time has proven an equally effective hallucinogen. This book revisits the Sixties we forgot or somehow failed to witness. In a kaleidoscopic global tour of the decade, Gerard DeGroot reminds us that the “Ballad of the Green Beret” outsold “Give Peace a Chance,” that the Students for a Democratic Society were outnumbered by Young Americans for Freedom, that revolution was always a pipe dream, and that the Sixties belong to Reagan and de Gaulle more than to Kennedy and Dubcek. The Sixties Unplugged shows how opportunity was squandered, and why nostalgia for the decade has obscured sordidness and futility. DeGroot returns us to a time in which idealism, tolerance, and creativity gave way to cynicism, chauvinism, and materialism. He presents the Sixties as a drama acted out on stages around the world, a theater of the absurd in which China’s Cultural Revolution proved to be the worst atrocity of the twentieth century, the Six-Day War a disaster for every nation in the Middle East, and a million slaughtered Indonesians martyrs to greed. The Sixties Unplugged restores to an era the prevalent disorder and inconvenient truths that longing, wistfulness, and distance have obscured. In an impressionistic journey through a tumultuous decade, DeGroot offers an object lesson in the distortions nostalgia can create as it strives to impose order on memory and value on mayhem.
528 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2008
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About the author
Gerard J. DeGroot
15 books7 followersSenior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Modern History at the University of St. Andrews.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
February 23, 2018
This book isn't all bad. There are some brilliant passages about student unrest in Mexico, Germany, Holland, and France. And some of the bitter truths about Sixties icons like John Kennedy and John Lennon are presented with force and insight.
Unfortunately, Gerard J. DeGroot has no insight into American history or American culture. His analysis of rock and roll music is laughably bad and his analysis of the racial violence of the Sixties is downright offensive. The problem is that this book covers the Sixties all over the world, but to understand the Sixties in America (or in popular music) you have to understand what came before it. And DeGroot evidently has no grounding in American history at all.
For example, when he's writing about the Watts Riot in 1965 the author takes the usual smug, National Review, William F. Buckley cheap shot about the rioters, i.e. the rioters accomplished nothing, they were just destroying their own neighborhood. But the way he expresses it is revealing. He says something like, "never before had defending freedom meant destroying a neighborhood." Well, yeah. Except that white people have been destroying black neighborhoods for generations, very much in the name of American freedom. But to know that you'd have to know the history of race in America. You'd have to go back to the East St. Louis in 1917, Tulsa in 1921, Chicago in 1919, even New York City in 1863. America has a long history of racial violence, but DeGroot doesn't care. He puts everything down to economic problems, and technological change. White racism never happened, or if it did it was just a few oddballs here and there. Really it was the blacks who started all the trouble. And that's pretty much all DeGroot knows about race in America.
It's also all he knows about rock and roll music. It's startling to read his capsule history of Sixties rock because he really knows nothing at all about where it came from, which is America. Specifically Black America. DeGroot describes the Beatles as basically harmless, clever but fundamentally shallow working class lads who were smart enough to put on nice suits and let that nice gentleman George Martin teach them how to make beautiful music that even adults could enjoy. He praises their "versatility" and implies that they didn't really begin making worthwhile music until they got away from all the noisy teens and stopped playing that nasty rock and roll. He never comes to terms with the fact that the energy, excitement, and thrill of the early Beatles sound came from black rhythm and blues. He doesn't point out that they built their explosive early stage act around covers of r&b classics like "Long Tall Sally" by Little Richard and "Twist and Shout" by the Isley Brothers.
This idiot knows as much about the history of rock music as he does about the history of black music -- or about the history of racial violence in America.
Unfortunately, Gerard J. DeGroot has no insight into American history or American culture. His analysis of rock and roll music is laughably bad and his analysis of the racial violence of the Sixties is downright offensive. The problem is that this book covers the Sixties all over the world, but to understand the Sixties in America (or in popular music) you have to understand what came before it. And DeGroot evidently has no grounding in American history at all.
For example, when he's writing about the Watts Riot in 1965 the author takes the usual smug, National Review, William F. Buckley cheap shot about the rioters, i.e. the rioters accomplished nothing, they were just destroying their own neighborhood. But the way he expresses it is revealing. He says something like, "never before had defending freedom meant destroying a neighborhood." Well, yeah. Except that white people have been destroying black neighborhoods for generations, very much in the name of American freedom. But to know that you'd have to know the history of race in America. You'd have to go back to the East St. Louis in 1917, Tulsa in 1921, Chicago in 1919, even New York City in 1863. America has a long history of racial violence, but DeGroot doesn't care. He puts everything down to economic problems, and technological change. White racism never happened, or if it did it was just a few oddballs here and there. Really it was the blacks who started all the trouble. And that's pretty much all DeGroot knows about race in America.
It's also all he knows about rock and roll music. It's startling to read his capsule history of Sixties rock because he really knows nothing at all about where it came from, which is America. Specifically Black America. DeGroot describes the Beatles as basically harmless, clever but fundamentally shallow working class lads who were smart enough to put on nice suits and let that nice gentleman George Martin teach them how to make beautiful music that even adults could enjoy. He praises their "versatility" and implies that they didn't really begin making worthwhile music until they got away from all the noisy teens and stopped playing that nasty rock and roll. He never comes to terms with the fact that the energy, excitement, and thrill of the early Beatles sound came from black rhythm and blues. He doesn't point out that they built their explosive early stage act around covers of r&b classics like "Long Tall Sally" by Little Richard and "Twist and Shout" by the Isley Brothers.
This idiot knows as much about the history of rock music as he does about the history of black music -- or about the history of racial violence in America.
February 19, 2016
Looking back on my review of Gerard deGroot’s ‘Seventies Unplugged’ I can see that I was actually somewhat lukewarm about it, which is interesting as it’s a book that has stayed with me over the years since I read it. I guess that when you quickly write one of these reviews just after finishing a book, you can’t really know which ones will actually latch onto your memory and not let go. Although looking back at my review I can see that some of the criticisms I made could be applied to the same author’s 1960s version: there’s not repetition as such, but things can become repetitive as the same issues crop up again and again and again; while deGroot’s obvious taste for writing about the decade’s darker incidents (they’re more dramatic, after all) means that some readers would certainly find this an oppressive tome. But actually I’m more positively inclined having just read ‘The Sixties Unplugged’ (if I’m honest, I suspect that if I was to re-read and re-review ‘The Seventies Unplugged’ I would be more positive towards that too). It’s big and daunting, but I found it fascinating, illuminating and delightfully chaotic whisk through a decade which has been subject to more interpretations that most.
deGroot gives a kaleidoscope view of history, with the book made up of 80 different essays, each focusing on various different areas of interest. Obviously those seeking great depth are going to be disappointed, but those wanting to find interesting and intriguing nuggets should be pleased. In the opening deGroot writes that he wants to demonstrate that the sixties wasn’t something that just happened in America (which raised my eyebrows towards the ceiling, as I’m pretty sure Britain had a pretty good and vigorous 1960s as well) and he is as good as his word in giving us pivotal moments in The Congo, Mexico, Germany (not just the raising of the wall), Indonesia and numerous others. Yes, there’s not the depth of a more focused history, but instead this book whisks us through the decade in a way that’s never boring or short of variety.
Those who are imbued with the dream of a glorious 1960s of limitless promise will probably throw it against a wall in frustration, thinking that deGroot is unnecessarily hard on the counter-culture. It’s true that the only student protestors who he has consistently good things to say about are Mexico’s (and I’ll be honest, I had no idea before reading this that those protests had been such a major event in Mexican history), but I don’t believe he starts the book being down on counter-culturals. I just think that he holds their beliefs and their wants up to their achievements and finds the end result distinctly lacking. Like all good history, deGroot isn’t just interested in what happened in the decade, as what came out of it – and perhaps we should never forget that this may have been the decade of free love, LSD and Woodstock, but also the decade in which Reganism was born.
This - despite being a kaleidoscope - is a sober, Informative, interesting and thought provoking history, rather than buying into the romantic myth, and all the better for it. I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that a 1980s version shows up!
deGroot gives a kaleidoscope view of history, with the book made up of 80 different essays, each focusing on various different areas of interest. Obviously those seeking great depth are going to be disappointed, but those wanting to find interesting and intriguing nuggets should be pleased. In the opening deGroot writes that he wants to demonstrate that the sixties wasn’t something that just happened in America (which raised my eyebrows towards the ceiling, as I’m pretty sure Britain had a pretty good and vigorous 1960s as well) and he is as good as his word in giving us pivotal moments in The Congo, Mexico, Germany (not just the raising of the wall), Indonesia and numerous others. Yes, there’s not the depth of a more focused history, but instead this book whisks us through the decade in a way that’s never boring or short of variety.
Those who are imbued with the dream of a glorious 1960s of limitless promise will probably throw it against a wall in frustration, thinking that deGroot is unnecessarily hard on the counter-culture. It’s true that the only student protestors who he has consistently good things to say about are Mexico’s (and I’ll be honest, I had no idea before reading this that those protests had been such a major event in Mexican history), but I don’t believe he starts the book being down on counter-culturals. I just think that he holds their beliefs and their wants up to their achievements and finds the end result distinctly lacking. Like all good history, deGroot isn’t just interested in what happened in the decade, as what came out of it – and perhaps we should never forget that this may have been the decade of free love, LSD and Woodstock, but also the decade in which Reganism was born.
This - despite being a kaleidoscope - is a sober, Informative, interesting and thought provoking history, rather than buying into the romantic myth, and all the better for it. I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that a 1980s version shows up!
February 10, 2018
Not 'Kaleidoscopic', IMHO.
December 28, 2010
Took me over a year to finish this monster. At times the political details struggled to hold my attention and I set the book down until I decided I was in the mood again. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the insight into the decade and found DeGroot's "kaleidoscopic" approach to be a successful one.
October 9, 2008
I hate his smarmy writing, and his complete lack of self-reflection when it comes to the benefits of hindsight, and I find his vignette style of history to be entirely ineffective.
September 27, 2024
This is a different look at the Sixties, not through hazy, teary eyes but through the clear vision of true analysis. And the author comes to some conclusions that some reviewers on Amazon and Goodreads don't like!
This book goes semi-chronologically, from topic to topic instead of month to month. It's a series of essays around politics, war, protest, culture, and the like. But his conclusions are fascinating.
Among these are that the most important political movement from this time was Reagan-style conservatism. By winning the California governorship in 1966, he set the stage for a true revolution, which dominated American politics for decades.
The extreme left of the hippies and anarchists? They did themselves in with competing agendas, self-violence, and drugs.
It's interesting to note that throughout, the New Left and old socialists/communists were protesting not the Right but the liberals, whom they considered not radical enough. In doing so, they helped discredit the antiwar movement and other political groups they favored.
It's not all bad here. There is a very nice overview of the drive for civil rights and expanded rights for women. But again, those groups spent a lot of time fighting well-meaning liberals and not-so-well-meaning sexist radicals.
This book goes semi-chronologically, from topic to topic instead of month to month. It's a series of essays around politics, war, protest, culture, and the like. But his conclusions are fascinating.
Among these are that the most important political movement from this time was Reagan-style conservatism. By winning the California governorship in 1966, he set the stage for a true revolution, which dominated American politics for decades.
The extreme left of the hippies and anarchists? They did themselves in with competing agendas, self-violence, and drugs.
It's interesting to note that throughout, the New Left and old socialists/communists were protesting not the Right but the liberals, whom they considered not radical enough. In doing so, they helped discredit the antiwar movement and other political groups they favored.
It's not all bad here. There is a very nice overview of the drive for civil rights and expanded rights for women. But again, those groups spent a lot of time fighting well-meaning liberals and not-so-well-meaning sexist radicals.
April 11, 2021
Despite what it advertises itself as, it's mostly a review of the counterculture in the US and UK. And though plenty in the counterculture is worth criticizing, it's the tone of the book that is most offensive. It is bitterly, unremittingly, brutally cynical. It's also filled with counterfactuals and DeGroot's own opinions, many of which aren't substantiated. It isn't so much "could have," "should have," or "would have," but rather, "could not have," "should not have," and "would not have." At the same time, as an historian of the sixties and seventies, I feel have to read the next book (Seventies Unplugged) to see where it goes.
December 20, 2018
It’s rare that I don’t finish a book, but I only made it through about 25% of this one. From the introduction and the blurb it was so promising. As a part of the baby boomer generation, this was a key decade to me, be it the Beatles, the anti Vietnam movement, hippies or Nixon, it was a decade that had just about every experience. What I was anticipating was a recap of all those various experiences. What I found was textbook style coverage. For all the color of the decade, the author seemed to find none. So I gave up.
June 24, 2021
Fascinating insight into the 1960s with some surprising insights.
June 20, 2008
A sort of American counterpart to Dominic Sandbrook's Never Had It So Good: A History of Britain from Suez to the Beatles, examining and in many cases debunking the rosy image presented to us of the 1960s as some sort of wave of free-spirited liberation that washed out the staid attitudes of the 1950s. It's certainly not the first book to take such an approach, but considering how deeply the idea in entrenched in popular perception, still welcome. Despite the at times cynical eye, I felt the subject matter was treated objectively, rather than conservative attack on the sacred cows of the left and liberalism.
October 28, 2013
A compressed capsule offering interesting part of the 60's history probably unknown to many of us till date... from the sophisticated personality management of US presidents to the tension between Martin Luther King and Malcom X to the invisible conflict between musicians like clapton vs hendrix and dylan vs beatles.... each episode covered with adequate detail in small chapters.... stories about Asia especially the politics and the cost of lives during the Indonesia coup of the 60's is very insightful and compelling read...... and how universities across US and Europe gave rise to the new world order and influenced generations to come.....
August 15, 2008
I FINALLY finished reading this book. It took forever. It is a 67 essay book written by an academic, and it took me back to the bad writing I had to read in college. Some of it was interesting, but I am happy to be done with it.
Of course, I could've stopped reading at any time, but it started out all right and by the time I decided I didn't like it, I had already invested so much I couldn't stop!
Of course, I could've stopped reading at any time, but it started out all right and by the time I decided I didn't like it, I had already invested so much I couldn't stop!
April 25, 2009
A collection of 5 - 10 page essays about different moments in the sixties that the author deemed significant. He's very judgmental of all sides and doesn't suffer fools. I enjoyed the book and found parts of it thought provoking. I would suggest the author think through the concept that hindsight is always 20/20. While some concepts on the right and left were obviously doomed to failure that wasn't always so readily apparent at the time.
May 20, 2011
A brave attempt to one up Arthur Marwick's "The Sixties" and falls flat in many ways.It is hard to look back at the sixties without having lived through it.There is a satisfying quality to stats, impressions and good research which this book hasn't much of, even though there is the constant "looking over the shoulder at the fifties" which underlies all this and more. Nice to be cynical but until you saw it at first hand then it is nice just to sit back and carp, constantly.....
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July 30, 2013'DeGroot’s historical method could be summed up as “describe and debunk,” an entertaining approach that involves telling the myth with all its excitement, producing some good jokes by way of debunking it, and adding a few mundane details made fascinating by their setting.'
Read the full review, "Counter-Counterculture," on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co...
Read the full review, "Counter-Counterculture," on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co...
March 20, 2012
Refreshing. A dash of cold water in the face of the sixties mythos. What you always suspected but were afraid to confront. Solid scholarship and an excellent summary of this most puzzling of decades.
July 23, 2012
If you have a solid grasp of '60s history and are familiar with common historic views of the decade, this book provides intriguing alternate analysis to many signature moments, events and trends.
September 6, 2008
I agree with Cindy, though it didn't take me that long to finish it was dry and academic and the unexpected twist to explain Nixon's "silent majority" wasn't terribly convincing.
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March 5, 2013Should be used for a history class, very comprehensive.
April 13, 2013
This s a great read that takes us through the drugs and the culture in general of the sixties and early seventies.
September 13, 2013
Interesting overview of many aspects of the decade internationally
October 28, 2014
Excellent ...
July 27, 2015
Took me SO LONG to read, but worth every second. A well-rounded, global view of an incredibly interesting decade.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews